(Christian Gooden/ZUMA24.com)
GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence – just hours after House Speaker Paul Ryan said he wouldn’t defend or campaign with Donald Trump – forcefully said Monday he would stand by his party’s nominee, even after a tape revealed him using vile language about women.
“I believe in grace and I believe in forgiveness,” Pence said at a Charlotte rally about Trump. “And last night my running mate showed the American people what was in his heart. He showed humility.”
“And then he fought back and turned the focus to the choice that we face,” he said of Trump’s attacks at Sunday night’s debate on Hillary Clinton.”
“And I am proud to stand with Donald Trump,” Pence added.
Pence was reported to have felt “apoplectic” after the release, last Friday, of an unedited 2005 tape that showed Trump bragging how his fame allowed him to grab women “by the p—y.”
The Indiana governor quickly released a statement saying that, “as a husband and father, I was offended by the words and actions described by Donald Trump” in the 11-year-old video.
“I do not condone his remarks and cannot defend them,” he added.
The tape prompted an exodus of dozens of Republican lawmakers away from Trump and quickly led to chatter that Pence could quit the ticket, especially after he pulled out of a scheduled replacement appearance for Trump at a Wisconsin campaign Saturday.
But Pence later indicated he would stand by Trump and was in attendance at the Sunday night debate.
And his comments Monday left no doubt that he would stick with the embattled Trump – who Ryan, earlier in the day refused to defend – through Election Day.
Pence, however, made no mention of Trump’s bizarre remarks at the debate the previous night that appeared to, once again, expose divisions between the two running mates.
When Trump was quizzed on what he would do to resolve the country’s devastating civil war, the GOP candidate said he and Pence weren’t on the same page.
“He and I haven’t spoken and I disagree,” Trump said of his running mate’s stance on how to best deal with the war-torn country.
Pence didn’t address the purported dis at the Charlotte rally, but during an appearance on “Fox and Friends” Monday morning, he seemed to blame the snafu on moderator Martha Raddatz.
“Last night, Martha Raddatz conflated those into a larger question about Russian provocation, Russian aggression and so I didn’t begrudge him at all saying we haven’t discussed it,” Pence said. “He disagreed with that and make no mistake about it, in Donald Trump and I, you’ll have a different kind of leadership relative to Syria.”
